Gabriela Moreira Lana Materials Scientist

Dr. Gabriela Moreira Lana is a Polymer Science and Engineering postdoctoral researcher in the Crosby lab at UMass Amherst. She received her PhD in Materials Science from Saarland University, in Germany, with the highest honors (summa cum laude) under the supervision of Professor Eduard Arzt at the Leibniz Institute for New Materials (INM) on the topic of "Microstructured adhesives for medical applications." She earned her European master's double degree from Saarland University (Saarbrücken, Germany) and The University of Lorraine (Nancy, France) through the AMASE program. Before that, she concluded an undergraduate and master's degree in Materials Engineering at CEFET- MG (Federal Center for Technological Education of Minas Gerais) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Her current work focuses on developing adhesives for extreme environments. As part of her postdoctoral research, Gabriela has developed new materials for complex industrial applications, with a strong emphasis on addressing environmental concerns and sustainability.

In her PhD, she worked on bioinspired microstructured adhesives (microfibrillar structures with a soft terminating layer) to solve problems in medicine, such as gentle and reliable skin attachment and the treatment of eardrum perforations using a self-adhesive silicone patch. For this research, Gabriela earned the Dr. Eduard Martin Prize 2023 at Saarland University, awarded to outstanding doctoral theses.

Gabriela aspires to establish her research group in 2025/2026 in Architectured Functional Biomaterials to address significant yet unexplored challenges in materials and biomedical engineering that require an interdisciplinary approach spanning materials and polymer science, bioinspired designs, and translational biomedical applications. Her research will focus on the development of wearable electronics, microfluidic devices, and novel bioprinting methods.